Voices of Animation

October 7 2026

Rick Corso Interview (Dino Spumoni) https://www.podserve.fm/e/episode-2-rick-corso-7XWhEtLr.m4a

David Wohl Interview (Principal Wartz) https://www.podserve.fm/e/episode-3-daivd-wohl-02QpWeQn.m4a

John Mariano Interview (Vic, Morrie) https://www.podserve.fm/e/episode-4-John-mariano-GxrMW1p8.m4a

Jarrett Lennon Interview (Eugene Horowitz) https://www.podserve.fm/e/episode-5-jarrett-lennon-n2eS9tB.m4a

1991 was a turning point in children’s television when the original Nicktoons lineup was launched with Rugrats, Doug, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. This paved the way for other Nicktoons shows to launch, and five years later, in 1996, Craig Bartlett created Hey Arnold! based on a 1988 claymation short. Arnold, who lives with his grandparents after his parents’ disappearance, lives in Hillwood, a city created from a combination of Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Brooklyn, New York. Arnold and his friends attend P.S. 118 and go through daily life and adventures around the city.

The show touched on adult themes and topics such as alcoholism, neglect, agoraphobia, poverty, immigration, and gentrification. The show featured guest stars such as Randy Travis, Elliot Gould, Phyllis Diller, Ron Perlman, Tim Curry, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Hey Arnold! aired from 1996–2004, with 100 episodes and two films, the former hitting the big screen and the latter being a long-awaited reboot film in 2017, thirteen years after the final episode aired on Nickelodeon. The film wraps up the series as Arnold and his classmates win a trip to San Lorenzo, where he goes searching for and eventually finds his long-lost parents.

Hey Arnold! blends so many music genres, from the jazz score composed by Jim Lang to a musical number that the P.S. 118 students put on. Randy Travis sings Mr. Hyunh’s song “The Simple Things,” while Rick Corso voices and sings various songs as Dino Spumoni, a Big Band singer in the shadow of Frank Sinatra.

The show had many significantly important episodes, but perhaps none more notable than “Helga on the Couch,” an episode that explores childhood trauma and behavioral explanations. It is considered the first animated children’s show to have a whole episode dedicated to child therapy and helped normalize and destigmatize therapy as a whole, especially for children.

Stu Livingston, a co-director and storyboard artist, won an Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Emmy for his work on The Jungle Movie. Hey Arnold! has a loyal and dedicated fan base, and through the course of eight years of the show’s run and The Jungle Movie, Francesca Smith won a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Voiceover for voicing the aforementioned Helga, while Jim Lang won an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award for Top TV Series.

Hey Arnold! has become one of the most well-known and significant animated shows of all time and was a major anchor of the turn-of-the-century Nicktoons. The show is still as iconic and memorable today as it was thirty years ago.